Sky Hunger
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: Sam finds an unexpected side-effect from his time in Starscream’s body causing him trouble. How can a wingless human assuage the sky-hunger? Sequel to “Further Complications.”
1. Chapter 1

Sky-Hunger.

Summary: Sam finds an unexpected side-effect from his time in Starscream's body causing him trouble. How can a wingless human assuage the sky-hunger? Sequel to "Further Complications"

Rating: M for safety and occasional four-letter cussing

Disclaimer: Property of Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not me.

Sky-Hunger.

Prologue.

It was ten days since Sam had gotten back into his own body, it was a Friday, and school was ending for the week. All his assignments had been completed, his grades were looking good, and Trent had not been anywhere near him: it seemed that the beating Starscream had given him was making him think twice about choosing Sam as the object of his frustrations. He and Miles were planning on hanging around the town as they always did on a Saturday, relaxing and drinking fizzy drinks while they cast an eye over the local talent. All in all, the week could not have gone any better.

'_So why'_ wondered Sam '_am I feeling like shit?'_

He knew the reason, of course, was the disturbed nights he'd been

having, the vivid dreams he'd been having. Not that the dreams themselves were unpleasant, no, they were, on the contrary, very nice dreams that left him breathless with joy once he woke. It was when he realised he was awake, and realised that the dreams were the only way he could soar in the sky under his own power now that he was once again human, that the pain of loss set in.

He and Miles got in Miles' junker – Bumblebee had duties at the Autobot base that day so Sam was hitching a lift home with Miles – and threw their book bags in the back seat. Sam seemed a bit down, Miles thought, had been all week, but today was the worst. He decided it would be best if he left Sam to brood, he figured that with everything that had been going on in Sam's life recently, going back to school must be pretty anti-climactic. Miles himself was looking forwards to Sunday, for once again Starscream had invited him to the Decepticon base, and Miles was hoping Starscream would fly with him again.

It seemed that Starscream's fondness for the eager young human had not waned despite being back in his own body and keeping company with his own kind. He had been invited over the Sunday previously too, although there had been a rather nasty moment when the big tank – Wreckage, Miles thought he was called – decided to have some fun menacing the squishy who had driven so boldly into their Base. It was fortunate for Miles – but unfortunate for Wreckage – that Starscream had come out to greet Miles from the building directly behind Wreckage. Luckily, Dr Syn had been able to save the sight in Wreckage's left optic after he'd staggered into the medbay.

Sam thanked Miles once they got home, grabbed his books from the junker's back seat, and gone in to greet his parents. He filled in the hours between then and bedtime by eating a meal and watching some TV with his folks, doing some schoolwork in Bumblebee, and doing his chores. When he got up to his room, he pushed some clutter off his desk, put his bag on the surface, and got ready for bed. He looked at his bed with revulsion, not looking forwards to the disturbed might he knew he was bound to have. Sighing, he got into the bed and let the exhaustion within him take him straight into a deep sleep.

A few hours later, Sam woke and sat in bed, remembering the dreams of flying, the sensation of soaring through the air, of dancing in the sunlight and daring to ride the front of a storm. He recalled the exhilaration of unfettered, self-powered flight, the freedom of the open sky, the thrill of travelling at three times the speed of sound.

Then he remembered that he was human, and unless something similar to the incident that had led to him experiencing flight in the first place happened, he was unlikely to ever experience it again outside of his dreams.

His stomach cramped up and he felt sick and shaky. He curled up on his bed as his skin began to get slick with sweat. The longing, the ache rose inside him, and he grabbed his pillow and pushed it against his face to muffle the sounds as the first sob escaped from him. Sam was not normally given to crying, but when confronted with this gnawing, painful, aching loss, he was powerless to do anything else.

He stayed like this for about an hour, before exhaustion took him back off into a sleep which was neither peaceful nor restful.

Three hours later he woke again, and once again he wept for what he had never realised he'd needed until he'd gained and then lost it.


	2. Chapter 2

Sky Hunger.

Chapter One.

A/N **Bold type **is com-speak. Thanks to KDZeal for beta reading this for me.

Sunday.

Ratchet looked up as Bumblebee walked in with Mikaela and Sam. Bumblebee seemed fine he noted, as did Mikaela, but Sam…

Sam looked pale, his expression miserable. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked older than his seventeen years. It was instinctive for Ratchet to motion Bumblebee and Mikaela aside and begin scanning Sam, who seemed barely to notice. What in Pit could have happened, Ratchet wondered, in the two weeks or so since the switchover to reduce Sam to this?

His scans indicated that Sam was exhausted, dehydrated and had lost weight. The boy was running on adrenaline alone, it seemed, and his stress levels were sky-high. Ratchet stopped his scans and picked Sam up, reaching up for a carton of Army-issue hydrating glucose drinks. He put Sam down on his big metal examination table and put the box down in front of Sam.

"I want you to drink at least two of those while I find out from Bumblebee just what has been going on," he said. Sam looked up at him dully, nodded, and reached in for a foil pouch. This was unlike Sam, who usually had a smile and a witty comment for the taciturn but fair medic.

"Scout, report." Ratchet said crisply, going from medic-with-patient mode to Autobot Captain mode. "How and why has Sam gotten into this condition?" Although Bumblebee was also a Captain in the Autobot forces, he snapped straight upright.

"Sam seems to be experiencing dreams of a disturbing nature," Bumblebee stated. "More than once a night for the last eight or nine days, I have heard Sam wake up and my scans indicate he is in a condition of distress," He stated. To Ratchet he commed: **I have heard him crying, but to say so out loud would embarrass him.**

Ratchet nodded, the gesture assuring Bumblebee that Ratchet had received his com and understood. Bumblebee continued. "As this has disturbed Sam's sleep, it is interfering with his concentration and functioning. Sam says the dreams are not themselves disturbing, it is the emotions that the dreams raise that are the problem."

Ratchet looked over at where Sam was listlessly finishing the first foil pouch.

"Sam, could you explain this? What are the dreams and why do they distress you so?"

"It's flying, I dream of flying, Ratchet, and they're the most wonderful dreams I've ever had," Sam said, looking up at Ratchet. Ratchet noticed the tears beginning to brim in his red-rimmed eyes as he continued speaking. "The thing is, I have to wake up to knowing that those dreams are the only way I'll ever fly like that again, because I'm a human, and not built to fly. But it doesn't stop me longing for it." Sam said the last sentence almost in a whisper.

Ratchet nodded: he thought he understood what was going on.

"Sam, listen to me – and start on another of those pouches, you can drink and talk at the same time," He ordered. Sam wordlessly took another pouch, looking at Ratchet and not seeming to care that the tears that had brimmed in his eyes earlier were now flowing down his face.

"Sam, you spent almost three weeks in Starscream's body, you can't expect to forget that, or the obvious delight you took in being a flyer, in a day or two or even a week or two," Ratchet said. "I would assume, Sam, that at the moment you are going through the worst part of this, and soon the memories will fade and things will get back to normal. Things will get better, Sam, but not overnight. Only time can solve this problem, Sam, there is nothing I can do about it."

Sam nodded hopefully. Ratchet was, after all, one of the best doctors on Cybertron and likely one of the best doctors currently on Earth. As such he knew what he was talking about, surely.

What neither Sam nor Ratchet realised however was that this was one of the few occasions that Ratchet had actually got it wrong, and as you'd expect, great doctors don't make _little_ mistakes. When great doctors make mistakes, they make great _big_ mistakes.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam managed to doze on the way back home in Bumblebee's passenger seat: Bumblebee had insisted Mikaela take the driver's seat to give Sam the opportunity to doze, for even though Bumblebee didn't need to be driven, it had to look as if the human in the driver's seat was in control of the wheel.

They got back in and Judy offered Sam one of her tranquilisers, but Sam waved it off. He didn't see it as likely to stave off the dreams or the associated emotions, plus he had school the next day and didn't want to risk going to school in a drug-induced haze: concentrating was already hard enough.

"Mom, I'll try them on Friday night if I need them. At least I have nothing to get up for on Saturday." As Sam trudged upstairs, he fervently hoped that by then the pain would have begun to ease.

When he once again woke early Monday morning from flight-dreams and then cried out his distress at being grounded in a human body, he miserably hoped that the dreams would begin to fade soon as Ratchet had promised.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Bumblebee heard Sam's window opening. He came to full awareness as he realised that Sam was standing in the window with his arms out to his sides. As he noticed him start to tilt, Bumblebee transformed, hoping he was in time, putting out his hands as Sam threw himself forwards. Bumblebee caught him. "Sam, what are you doing?" he said, scanning him. The human boy muttered something that sounded like "None of your business, Autobot."

Bumblebee was a bit lost for words at that, and even more surprised when his scans indicated that although his eyes were open and he was speaking, Sam was deeply asleep, his eyes twitching. It only took Bumblebee a few seconds to access everything the Internet had on the phenomenon known as 'sleepwalking.' From that and a few other sites, he surmised that Sam was dreaming of when he'd had to pretend to be Starscream in the Decepticon leader's body, which would explain his comment.

Having read on several sites that waking the sleepwalker suddenly was a bad idea, Bumblebee put the hands containing the human boy in his room, setting him on his feet, and managed to project his holoform too, not an easy task in robot form. Using his tractor and pressure beams to make the holo-hand on Sam's arm realistic enough to guide him, he said, "Sam. Go back to bed." A few sites said that sometimes giving orders would work, the walker should be guided to a safe place if possible. It worked, to Bumblebee's relief: Sam got into bed and seemed to settle. Bumblebee was relieved enough to shut down into car form, although he left his scanners and his holoform on.

When Sam once again woke up crying in the morning, Bumblebee used his holoform to put his arms around Sam and hold him as he wept. He thought it best not to mention the sleepwalking, Sam had enough problems as it was.

Sam had been acting more oddly at school that week, starting with Monday: gazing out at the sky in class, and when outside, turning into the wind and stretching out his arms, standing on tiptoes with his eyes looking up to the small puffy clouds. Once or twice, he let out a small whining keen, for apparently no reason, and sometimes he didn't seem to recognise his name.

Trent and his cronies, after the first week of avoiding him, had noticed his odd behaviour and had started whispering amongst themselves and snickering. Rumours began to fly around the school, rumours that the Witwicky insanity that had afflicted his great-grandfather had skipped a couple of generations and was now coming out in Sam. Sam barely seemed to notice the whispering campaign, and when he did, only coming out with a half-hearted denial that had a doubtful tone even to Mikaela's ears.

No-one knew who coined the nickname 'Skyboy' for him early on the Wednesday morning, but the effect of it on Sam was obvious: he flinched, and a pained look crossed his face. Of course, as they are wont to do, the bullies noticed this immediately, and by the lunch hour, none of them used his given name when referring to, or calling to him, although the calls of "Hey, Skyboy!" grew a lot more frequent as the afternoon wore on.

Sam had sleepwalked again on that morning, and did so again on the Thursday, and as Bumblebee caught his somnambulant charge and used the holoform to guide him back to his bed that morning, he resolved that if this hadn't started to improve by Friday, he was taking him to Ratchet the moment school was out for the weekend.

The dreams did not seem to have lessened any, nor the pain Sam experienced on waking, and Sam's behaviour was getting more and more odd, even to Bumblebee.

After comforting Sam from his dream-awakenings that Thursday, Bumblebee watched him with concern as he stumbled out. Sam was still exhausted, and even one or two of his teachers had been heard wondering if Sam was in need of medical attention, or spending the entire evening on the internet. Bumblebee saw Sam weave forwards, recover his composure, walk forwards, then turn into the wind with his arms-out-on-tiptoe attitude he seemed to be doing a lot more recently. Trent and two of his friends were nearby. One nudged Trent while the other called out, "Hey Skyboy? Gonna take off today?" As the now-familiar pained look flickered over Sam's features, it took all of Bumblebee's self-control not to walk his holoform over to Trent and slug him and his two friends.

Sam continued on, looking more dazed as he walked on, not just ignoring the three now but actually seeming only partially aware of their presence. As Sam turned around to glance back at Bee, it was the confused look in Sam's eyes and the awkward shuffle of his walk that decided it for Bumblebee. He commed Ratchet.

**Ratchet? It's not getting any better for Sam, it's getting worse, and I'm bringing him in to you after his school day has finished. **Bumblebee stated.

**Tonight? Why not wait till Friday? **Commed back Ratchet.

Bumblebee databurst back a flat refusal. He was too concerned for Sam to wait that long.


	3. Chapter 3

Sky Hunger.

Chapter Two.

A/N:** Bold sentences are databursts.**

_Italicised sentences are Sam' dreaming point of view._

oOo - are mini scene breaks.

After Ratchet had received the terse message from Bumblebee, he brought up Sam's medical information – both what he'd hacked from Sam's records and from his own scans – and checked through it all to see if there was an underlying problem he'd missed that might be exacerbating his problems. All his hormone levels were normal, his organs were all functioning as they had always done – and it was then that Ratchet spotted something.

He pulled up the first scan he had ever done of Sam, when they had first met, and compared it. Yes, there was a distinct discrepancy in the electrical activity around Sam's heart between then and now. Ratchet frowned. It almost looked as if Sam possessed…a Spark?

Ratchet called up his first and most recent scans of Mikaela too, glad that he routinely scanned all his patients every three months. There too, with her, there seemed to be a similar discrepancy, but he couldn't tell properly. Working on a hunch, he also called up Will Lennox's records, and with him there was also a discrepancy, although far less marked than Sam's or Mikaela's, and with all three the results were clouded by the human's own background electrical activity. All three had a difference in their scans, and those three had all had some sort of physical contact with the AllSpark.

He set a third of his processor power to detecting and eliminating from the results the electrical activity of the human's own systems. He knew it would probably take a few hours to complete, so turned away to get his med bay ready for Sam's arrival, and finally inventory the supplies the Army had provided him with.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Miles slid into his customary seat beside Sam after homeroom. They had math, and Sam and Miles always sat together for math.

"Hey Bro, you look like shit, man!" he said. Sam didn't respond, and Miles touched his arm. Sam jumped, flinching at the touch, grabbing at Miles and staring wildly at him. Miles looked back in shock, because the look contained almost no recognition of him at all. Then Sam's eyes focused on the blond human and he said "Miles?"

"Sam, what's the matter with you?" he said. "You've been acting strange and looking stranger all week. He lowered his head close to Sam and whispered "You're not on drugs are you, man?"

Sam shook his head slowly, and bent his head to concentrate on his work. He was so tired, and frightened about what he was feeling. He was getting lost for minutes at a time just staring at the sky, had a suspicion it would be hours if Miles or Mikaela didn't shake him out of it whenever they saw it happening. Sometimes he didn't even know totally who or what he was: Sam or someone else, human or Cybertronian, grounder or Seeker.

He scratched down his answer and his working out, but halfway through, his pen stopped working as his head turned and his brown eyes sought the blue summer sky, and a yearning stirred in his heart.

Miles looked up to see Sam's eyes sky-caught again, and touched his shoulder, squeezing it. "Sam!" he hissed. Again Sam flinched, looked at Miles with the eyes of a stranger, then focused again. Miles nodded to the work again, and Sam bent his head, trying to concentrate.

Six more times that lesson he had to pull Sam back to his work, and Miles was worried. Sam had just seemed a bit distracted and exhausted that Monday, and Miles had decided not to ask, Sam would tell him if he had any problems in his own time, he always did if he needed to. However, Sam had deteriorated badly, and Miles decided he needed to talk to Sam, pulling him off to one side once they'd filed out.

"Sam, man what's wrong with you, what is it?" he asked. They didn't have much time, Sam had science next, the lesson was in the fifth-floor lab.

Sam seemed reasonably coherent, Miles noticed. Sam rubbed at his red eyes with the back of his arm.

"Miles…I..I'm sorry." He said.

"Don't apologise, come on, bro, what's the matter? Maybe I can help?" he said. "That's what bro's are for, right?"

"But you _can't_ help, bro, _nobody_ can help me." said Sam, tears welling up and pain ghosting over his face. "You can't help me fly, you can't fly and take me, I've lost the ability to fly. No, thanks bro, but you can't help."

Sam pulled away and headed for the stairs to the lab, leaving Miles aware of what Sam's problem was, for he had seen the same thing, to a lesser extent, in Starscream when he was in Sam's body. Starscream had later that day explained the situation to Miles at the Autobot base.

"He's sky-hungry." He muttered to himself, already beginning to think about what could be done. Then he had an idea. No, he couldn't fly and take Sam up with him, but he knew someone who _could._

Five minutes later, Miles was in his junker and driving just within the limit towards the Decepticon base

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam slid behind his desk in the room when he got there, knowing he was in for a hard time. There was no Mikaela and no Miles to pull his attention back to the subject, though he was glad to see the blinds had been pulled to keep out the sunlight. At least he wouldn't keep getting distracted by the sight of the sky out of the windows.

The thing is, although Sam found the biology assignments and lessons to be mildly interesting, he found the physics ones less interesting, and the chemistry just bored him. Unfortunately, it was chemistry they were doing that day. At least Math was difficult enough to keep his attention part of the time, but he knew he was going to have a hard time concentrating on this lesson, concentrating on _anything_ was getting harder and harder.

Sam's boredom, combined with his exhaustion, were what contributed towards him slipping further forwards at his desk until he finally lay frontwise over it asleep, his hands drooping flaccidly over the edge. The teacher looked at him, and was about to go and wake him up with a palm slapped on his desk when he thought again. Sam was in general a good and attentive student, occasionally a little too diligent. This was out of character for Sam Witwicky.

He recalled that Sam had been looking increasingly peaky, and it wasn't just him, other teachers had noticed as well. Another look at the rings around Sam's eyes confirmed his decision: Sam needed the sleep more than he needed that day's lesson. It was just note-taking, there was no practical work that day, and another student could give him the notes. He'd let Sam sleep, but call the boy's father after the lesson to pick him up and take him home. The teacher turned back to the rest of the class to continue his lesson.

Five minutes later, Sam's eyes moved rapidly under his lids: Sam was dreaming.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Miles honked his horn in the three-tone signal he used to request entry to the Decepticon base. He heard something muttered in a language he didn't understand, but the tone suggested it was an expletive. Then after a few seconds, the big metal gates swung aside and a voice he recognised as Barricade's said "Enter, Miles Lancaster. You are early, we were not expecting you for another three days."

Miles drove right in, stopping and getting out of his car. He turned to where the black and white Decepticon was operating the controls to close the gates again.

"Where's Starscream? It's important!" he cried.

"Relaxing in his room." Stated Barricade. He looked at Miles, crouched, and put his hands out. "If it is as important as your facial expression and stridency of vocal tone suggest, I had best carry you there so I can open the door for you."

Miles wasted no time climbing into Barricade's hands, and the black and white mech carried him to Starscream's quarters, announced Miles' presence, and sent a command to the door to open. As Barricade put him down, Miles ran in to where Starscream was getting up from where he had been lying on his berth. Hearing a disappointed cry and seeing a blue hand reach for where Starscream had been lying a moment before, Miles embarrassedly realised he'd walked in while Starscream was in the middle of something.

"What is it, Miles?" asked Starscream, crouching down so his face was closer to Miles' own. "Barricade said it was important."

"It had better be!" said the green camo flyer who had been out of sight but was now sitting up, whom Miles recalled was called Skywarp. "Thundercracker's about a few touches shy of an overload, and _I_ want one too!"

"It's Sam!" said Miles. "He's sky-hungry and it's driving him mad!" Even the other two fliers listened as Miles described what Sam was like and what he'd said, and what Mikaela and Bumblebee had told him about Sam's trip to Ratchet earlier that week.

"You two finish each other off and follow." Said Starscream, scooping up Miles. "Mile, we're going to the school now. This is important, my own overload can wait!"

Five minutes later, Starscream, with Miles strapped securely into the pilot's chair, took off in jet-form.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

_He was in his quarters, feeling frustrated and needing to fly, he couldn't remember why he was this sky-needy, had he not flown in a while? He looked at the shut door. Had he been locked in? He NEEDED to fly. He got up to try the door._

oOo

The teacher was surprised to see Sam suddenly seem to wake up. "Mr Witwicky." He said, but Sam seemed to ignore him. He opened the door and walked out. By the time the teacher had settled the class, and gone out of the door, Sam had vanished from sight.

oOo

_The door was open, and he ran, desperate to get out to the open air. He instinctively took the up-stairway in front of him, only to find his way blocked…by a human. How would Starscream react? Ah, he knew exactly how._

oOo

The caretaker came down from the roof exit, having checked that the roofing material was not cracked or risking springing a leak. He needed to tidy up some rubbish that the wind had swept up there, that was all.

The thin teenager on his way up stopped as he almost ran into him, and the caretaker noticed that the boy seemed to almost not see him, although he was obviously aware of the caretaker's presence as he had stopped. Then he spoke, the voice slightly slurred but understandable.

"Get out of my way, fleshling!" he said. Then he stepped around the caretaker and was gone.

The caretaker reached the bottom of the stairs, baffled by what the boy had said. Was "fleshling" the latest recess time insult? He shrugged, he'd confront the boy when he got back up to the roof, for that he'd get him to help clear some of the rubbish.

When he got to the top, the boy was stood there on tiptoes, arms out, facing into the wind, which here was quite strong. The look on his face could only be described as happy.

"Hey you!" the caretaker called. The boy turned, not to face the caretaker, but so the wind was at his back. Then, to the caretaker's horror, Sam began to run towards the edge of the roof…

oOo

_He was free! He was in the air, he could feel the wind on him, saw the sky above him. The sky! The glorious sky! He could feel it calling to him! He ran, eager to launch himself into that beautiful blue jewel of a sky, into the embrace of the air._

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Ratchet checked back on the scan results, pleased to find that it had not taken as long as he had thought it would to filter out the human's own electrical activity from the scans.

He looked at Lennox's first, and blinked. There was nothing that could strictly be called a Spark, but there was definitely Spark energy there, a protospark of sorts. It had not coalesced into a true Spark, neither was there any indications it was going to anytime soon, and might even dissipate and fade over time.

Then he checked Mikaela's, and was surprised to find that she _did_ have a proper Spark which suffused her heart. Why had hers coalesced when Lennox's had not? Was it down to her age, or something else? He wondered if the body-swap with Optimus might be the reason, the protospark having a proper Spark-chamber to go into may have been what was needed. Looked like a pretty standard Spark, like his and Optimus' and Bumblebee's except for being the energetic Spark of a femme. Hmm, if that was the case, then Sam, too, should have a Spark, three weeks in Starscream's body would have been ample time for the Spark-formation from the protospark.

Sure enough, Sam's cleaned-up scan revealed a fully-formed Spark, although Ratchet blinked. There was something about it that differed from the one Mikaela possessed, and Optimus' and Bumblebee's, and his own, but he also knew he'd seen something similar recently, somewhere.

He skimmed his recent memories, then found the relevant memory. Three weeks or so ago, he had scanned the Base visitors for their medicals: Sam in Starscream's body, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. Then his own Spark flickered as he made the connection.

Sam had a _Seeker's_ Spark! He was genuinely sky-hungry, a hunger that only getting airborne would assuage. If denied flight for too long, from irreparable wing injury or incarceration, or anything that denied them flight, a Seeker would go insane.

Ratchet commed Bumblebee urgently: **Get Sam and get him here _now_!** Then he switched to the private channel he and Dr Syn used to communicate.

**Get Starscream to fly here _now!:_ I need his help!** He said, comming the details. **I just hope it's not too late for Sam.**

**I'm sorry, Ratchet, but Starscream left ten minutes ago with the human Miles Lancaster, and you just missed his wingbrothers.** Dr Syn said apologetically. **Don't worry though, I think the human boy told him, I believe their destination is the school.** The Decepticon medic said.

**Good enough. Mirage and I will head out there right now! **Ratchet said, then cut the connection and commed Mirage.

**Get your aft out into the courtyard and get ready to go. We're going to Sam's school.** Ratchet told the startled blue and white mech.

Mirage was there waiting in vehicle form as Ratchet ran out of the Base, he must have informed Cliffjumper, who was on gate duty, for the gates were fully open. Ratchet took a leap and landed in vehicle form, speeding out of the Base with Mirage right behind him.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

_He jumped on the low wall of the building and savoured the feeling of the air all around him, throwing his head back and l__aughing, feeling it tug and caress him, inviting him to join it in its wild dance._

oOo

Mikaela was out with a few friends during a free period when one of them nudged her arm and pointed to the roof of the main school block. She looked up and her stomach lurched at the sight of the figure standing at the roof edge. "That's Sam!" she cried, recognising him even at this distance.

oOo

Bumblebee received Ratchet's com at about the same time as he spotted Sam on the school roof. He began to transform, but knew that he was too far away, that he wouldn't make it in time…

oOo

The caretaker's stomach lurched as the boy reached the roof parapet, leaping onto it, but not continuing to run. Perhaps he could stop him jumping? Slowly walking towards him with one arm outstretched, the caretaker said "Stay there, boy, don't jump, it's going to be okay, trust me, just take my hand…"

oOo

_He turned his head at the voice, seeing the fleshy from earlier creeping towards him with his arm outstretched. As he processed his words, and saw the outstretched hand, everything fell into place. This must be the one who had kept him from the sky! He didn't remember seeing him before but he was ordering him to not jump and to take his hand, and he NEEDED the sky. The fleshy was trying to ground him further. No! That wasn't going to happen!_

_Turning from the organic creature, he threw himself forwards and up into the sky…_

oOo

"He's not going to jump." one of Mikaela's friends said, as Sam turned back towards the inside edge of the roof. "I think someone's up there, talking to him."

Mikaela sighed, hopefully whoever was up there could get him down safely. Sam had never struck her as the suicidal type, but this dream business had been getting him down, and he _had_ been acting rather oddly recently. Perhaps the bullying had gotten too much, although she couldn't believe that, not after seeing Sam defeat Megatron – who had simply been a bully on a cosmic scale – in Mission City.

Then her stomach lurched again as Sam jerked his head back around to face the roof edge, and then she joined her friends in screaming in horror, and running forwards, as she saw Sam throw himself forwards and out, with his arms slightly out from his sides…


	4. Chapter 4

Sky Hunger.

Chapter Three.

A/N Thanks to my nurse mother for drilling bone and body part names into me since I was a sparkling…umm…baby…

For a moment, to those on the ground Sam seemed to pause in midair. The he began to drop, arms spread, legs straight out behind him. His body tilted forwards and to one side as the winds around the building and the laws of gravity pulled and twisted at his body.

Sam's cry was briefly heard, and he stretched out his arms towards the ground and lifted his head. To the running Mikaela, it was as if Sam was looking directly at her, though she doubted that he even saw her at that point. Then he hit the ground with a wet cracking sound, and his cry was cut off.

Bumblebee reached Sam as she did: Mikaela didn't need Bumblebee's scans to tell her that Sam was seriously injured. She knelt by him, but did not dare touch him.

His arms were a mess: the bones of his forearms had splintered. Mikaela could see several places on each where the impact had forced the bone shards through Sam's flesh, and his upper arms and shoulders were in such unnatural positions that there had to be further fractures in both places. The side of his face that she could see seemed relatively unscathed, although he was very pale. Bending down revealed that the other side of his face looked as if it had been attacked with a steak hammer. His body was twisted in a painful-looking position and she could see a jagged piece of broken bone sticking at least two inches from the bloodied tear in his denim pants, the leg bending at the site where it had no right bending in a healthy human.

She grabbed for her purse: everyone else seemed paralysed. She took out her mirror and held it near his nose and mouth. The fogging of condensation told her what she needed to know a heartbeat before Bumblebee confirmed it by saying "He's alive but not conscious."

"What is it?" one of her friends asked, followed by an "Is it dangerous?" from another, and she realised that the paralysis was not only down to Sam's leap and subsequent injuries, but also down to the presence of the yellow Autobot scout.

Said yellow Autobot scout had finished scanning and only had optics for Sam, oblivious to his nervous audience.

"He's friendly, damn you all, pull yourselves together and someone call 911!" she called out angrily.

"Already done." Said Bumblebee.

It was less than five minutes later that a very familiar Search and Rescue vehicle drove in through the school gates and drove over in the parking lot, parking by the side. The dark-haired driver got out of the driver's side and a pretty redheaded nurse got out of the back, confirming Mikaela's suspicion. Ratchet was the only Autobot she knew who utilised two holoforms, and that was them.

They walked over and Ratchet stayed in car form, but scanned Sam himself, the male holoform seeming to be the one that spoke.

"He has two hairline fractures of the braincase, a broken jaw and a broken left cheekbone. His left clavicle, left and right scapula, two of his left upper abdominal ribs and one of the right are also fractured. One of the left ribs has punctured his lung. Both of his humerus bones have fractured twice, and the radius and ulna of both arms have splintered longitudinally. All his metacarpals and carpels are shattered."

Mikaela winced: she had trained under Ratchet as an auxiliary medic as he was rather large to treat humans, and one of the first things he had taught her was the bones of the body and the injuries that they could suffer. However, Ratchet hadn't finished.

"His back is broken in two places, his spinal column severed at the waist. His pelvic girdle is thankfully undamaged, as are his femora, but his left fibula has a single transverse fracture."

"What's he saying?" asked one of Mikaela's friends.

"He's telling us that Sam has multiple fractures in his hands, wrists arms, and shoulders, skull, back and one in his lower leg." Mikaela translated shortly. "And a punctured lung." She added.

"His life is not in immediate danger but we must get him somewhere like my med – like the hospital." Ratchet said as Mirage drew up.

At that moment, three jets swooped low over the school: the green and the blue screeched overhead and started performing aerial manoeuvres that drew all eyes in the windows of the building that had not noticed Sam's fall to them, which meant the third plane could turn, fly low, and land near them without drawing too much attention. The canopy lifted and Miles slid out, gong over to join Mikaela.

"Shit! What _happened_?" he stated.

"He jumped, I don't know why." She told him.

"He needed to fly, he tried to fly even without wings. It has happened to permanently wing-ruined Seekers: it is our way to give them mercy. Shall I do that for you?" Starscream asked, still in plane form. "I can make it quick-"

"No!" Mikaela almost screamed. "That's not our way, Ratchet has said he can live."

"He may not _want_ to live." Starscream said, then began to transform.

Starscream caused a stir amongst Mikaela's friends as he transformed: it was too much for them and, their paralysis broken, they scattered and ran. Starscream regarded them with disdain.

"Why did they run? I am not threatening them." he said.

"Um…maybe they don't like Seekers?" said Miles, not wanting to admit how easily most humans could get weirded out.

Starscream narrowed his optics in annoyance.

"Well, if so, they have no taste: Seeker frames are gorgeous." he said. Then he looked at Sam.

"Oh. I still think it would be kinder to kill him." he said as he saw the condition the human was in.

"No." said Miles, running to Sam's side. "Hey bro, wake up." He said to the prone form of his friend.

Sam suddenly gasped and his eyes opened and he cried out at the pain of his ruined body. He looked at Miles and the others, and agony filled his gaze. Two tears, followed by two more, ran down his face, and then he groaned again. Then his cries subsided and his eyes slid shut: he had blacked out from the pain. Mikaela and Miles looked at each other, feeling helpless and upset.

Ratchet was still scanning, and a look of confusion flickered over the male holoform's face.

"There's an energy buildup." he said. "It's AllSpark energy? It's building fast…" and then the holoform flickered out. "Get BACK!" he ordered, reversing away from Sam, still in vehicle form. Mirage and Bumblebee followed. Even Starscream noted the alarmed tone in Ratchet's voice, and took several hops backwards: Miles and Mikaela were already moving.

Sam suddenly seemed haloed in a blue-white energy too bright to look at, then was swiftly obscured by it. The white glow/haze became a dome of light, the edges racing along the ground of the parking lot, swallowing up the cars in its wake, although it didn't seem to swallow the school building.

A blue lightning snaked out after the fleeing figures, and made contact with Starscream, who barely flinched, but Mikaela stumbled and fell to her hands and knees. She was abruptly swallowed by the wall of light. Then the lightning was absorbed by the white dome - which stopped its advance - and they stopped running and watched, the four Cybertronians on the ground scanning as the two in the air kept the humans in the school from looking down.

Miles had turned back to go back in after Mikaela but was stopped by Bumblebee, who barred his way with a careful hand.

"We gotta go back for Mikaela!" he cried, trying to get past.

"_No_!" Ratchet said. "We do not know what that energy might do to either Cybertronian or organic life. How can you help her if it damages or kills you the moment you make contact?"

"What if it's not dangerous?" he argued.

"Then she's okay and doesn't need rescuing." Ratchet countered. Miles subsided: Ratchet had a point but he didn't like it. One glance at the look in Bumblebee's optics confirmed that he didn't like it either, but was still not budging. Miles supposed that in war you sometimes had to do things that went against your instinct, and patted Bumblebee's hand. How many times had Bumblebee been forced to leave those he loved behind, as much as he had wanted to go back, he wondered, turning back to look at Ratchet.

Ratchet was scanning Starscream, the green beams playing over the Seeker.

"Why are you scanning me, Autobot?" he asked.

"You were hit by some of the energy discharge: I am checking you were not damaged by it." he said. "So far my scans suggest you were unharmed."

"It _tickled_." said Starscream. Ratchet quirked one plate-eyebrow but passed no comment.

He finished his scans. "You are undamaged." He said, then turned with everyone else to watch the glowing dome.

It was shrinking, fairly rapidly, and fading, and as the glow receded, a human figure became visible, crouching on the tarmac. It was Mikaela. Miles ran over and helped her up: she seemed shocked but unharmed. There was also something else apparent.

"Weren't there cars there before?" asked Miles.

"Yeah, including Trent's, so where are they?" Mikaela mused. She looked down.

"Hey, my belt buckle's gone!" she said.

"So are your earrings." Said Miles, pointing. Mikaela raised her hand to her ear: sure enough her gold-coloured hoops were missing. Further checking also revealed the absence of her watch, the studs of her jeans, the studs and chains from her leather cuff, her cell phone, and the clips on her coin purse. In fact, it seemed that anything Mikaela had worn or held with metal in it had been affected: the metal was absent.

The glow had receded further when they had finished inventorying Mikaela's possessions, so they could see that at the centre of the glow was a brighter area. They carefully paced the glow as it shrank back down.

The glow was almost completely faded, and they could see no sign of Sam at its heart, but what was obvious was the figure that lay in its place. It looked like, exactly like…but it _couldn't_ be…

"_Starscream?"_ queried Mikaela, looking from one identical Seeker to the other. "But…it _can't_ be…Starscream's here with _us_…" Suddenly her brain caught up with her mouth and she made a leap of logic. It didn't completely make sense and she still didn't understand how, but maybe it was…

"_Sam?_" she asked as the Seeker scrambled to its feet.

Bumblebee suddenly picked her up as she heard the Seeker's engines fire up: Starscream had already grabbed Miles and was retreating, and Ratchet and Mirage backed off as well. As Sam took off vertically into the air, Mikaela saw why they had been pulled back: Sam's jets would have killed them otherwise.

"He didn't even see fit to warn us to get out of the way?" she said, hurt.

"He just didn't think about it. He needs to fly. it's the only thing on his mind. He's needed to fly for a long time: don't expect him to wait any longer now he can." said Starscream. He put Miles down.

"I'm sorry, I think I'll join them. Also, Sam needs to go into his alt-mode: he's going to draw too much attention like that. He motioned them back with his hands, followed Sam into the sky, flipping into jet-form as soon as he'd cleared the ground.

"Well, at least that explains the cars, and your metal, Mikaela." Ratchet said.

"Does it?" she asked. Ratchet nodded, as they watched Sam abruptly flip into F-22 form.

"Yes. The AllSpark can, it is true, create metal from it's own energy, it is a simple conversion of energy to matter but it requires a lot of energy to do." He explained. "It's far more energy efficient to take existing materials and change them into what you need." he said. "The non-metal parts of the car were changed to metal, and the metal was used to build Sam's new body."

"What about fuel?" said Mikaela as they watched the four jets weave intricate patterns about each other in the air. "I presume he's using some sort of fuel?"

"The fuel in the cars was converted too, to a form he could use." said Ratchet. He gave a short laugh. "It appears your school is getting a private air display."

Mikaela looked up at the building: faces crowded the windows, all watching the sleek Seekers dancing around each other and weaving between each other, doing rolls and turns and spins. She could have been doing a naked dance below and no-one would have seen.

After a while, one of the Seekers peeled away from the others, and the other three went off in a different direction.

"Sam is ready to land now: I directed him to go to Base and warned everybody - particularly the Twins - to expect him and not to shoot." Ratchet chuckled. "I think now we should all head back. Optimus will have to alert the Government and pull some strings to get property replaced and a cover story to explain Sam's absence."

Mikaela nodded as she got into Bumblebee. Oh yes, lots of stuff would need to be done, and that was just the beginning!


End file.
